The Engagement
by EternalCullen
Summary: Rose and Dimitri - DPOV. Title should be self-explanatory. Short-story.
1. Chapter 1

The ownership of all characters related to and involving the novels of _The Vampire Academy_ and _Bloodlines_ Series remain the sole property of Richelle Mead, the Penguin Group and any affiliates.

No copyrights have been infringed on maliciously.

A/n: Okay, so I know that I was supposed to post the first chapter in _By the Baring of my Soul_ and I have written it…but its complete crap, so I'm going back to the drawing board on that one. I might scrap it entirely and change the chapters I would have written in one-shots.

Thank you everyone for the AWESOME reviews for _Ritual_. I hadn't intended to continue with it as it was technically a one-shot but as so many of you have asked for a follow up on Rose's revenge (and you know she's going to make Dimitri pay for setting her up) it is definitely something that I will consider in the future, but in the meantime…

I've been toying with the idea for a while on how to write a one-shot describing Dimitri's proposal. I hadn't really given it any serious thought because it's Rose, so it was never going to be an easy one to write because she's difficult on a good day, but after receiving a really nice guest review for _Siberian Persuasion_ asking how it was going to happen, I decided to give it a try.

It's longer than I intended (no big surprise) so I've changed it from a one-shot to a short story probably with three or four chapters.

Enjoy!

~ The Engagement ~

"So tell me, Belikov," Abe Mazur mused quietly from over the rim of his coffee cup; eyeing me with darkly enigmatic eyes that were shrewdly assessing and always calculating. "When exactly are you planning on marrying my daughter?"

"Abe!"

Raising his eyebrows in a look of almost innocent puzzlement at his daughter's irritable bark from beside me, Abe tilted his black head towards her but kept his eyes very firmly on me.

To some, it might look as though it was an expression of regret, but there wasn't the least bit of remorse to be found anywhere on his sharply focused features…Abe knew exactly what he was up to.

He had been searching for his daughter's exposed nerve since arriving at Court yesterday morning and although she had managed to keep things between them mostly civil; mainly because she had avoided him like the plague for most of his visit, he had kept chipping away at her every opportunity he had.

Quirking a sardonic brow at him, I held his direct gaze for a second longer as I made my own feelings on the matter clear. Not appreciating his interference any more than Rose, my disapproval would have been more than obvious to even the most disinterested onlooker, but it seemed as though I no longer had his attention…he had found what he wanted.

"Yes, Rosemarie?" Abe imparted innocently as he finished off the last of his coffee liqueur and scooped up another bite of his soufflé; raising the gilded spoon to his mouth as his fathomless eyes glinted with the deviltry that seemed to come so naturally to him. "Is something wrong?"

Scowling at her father, Rose folded her arms crossly over her chest, but he appeared undaunted by her wrath…not something that many could ever claim to be.

"You know exactly what's wrong, old man," she uttered with a quiet snarl as her jaw jutted out aggressively. "Drop it."

Setting his spoon down very deliberately, Abe rested back against his seat and clasped his ringed fingers together over the midriff of his gold satin waistcoat as he continued to smirk at her; the light from the candelabra hanging high above us in the Queens private dining-room glinted off the gold hoop earring in his left ear as dangerously as it did the glint in his eyes.

He seemed to find something amusing in his daughters demand…as if it was a challenge he had no intention of backing down from because he was entirely comfortable in knowing that he would so easily win.

"I'm your father and as such, I have a right to ask these questions, so no, I will not _drop it_. It's also my parental duty to do so as your mother is in Shanghai and isn't here to do it herself. It's a perfectly reasonable question, Rosemarie," he fired back with gentle mockery. "But with the way you're acting, it's as if you have something to hide. Do you?"

Grinding her teeth together with such violence that I was sure it could be heard by everyone at the table, the tension that had been simmering just below the surface between the pair became increasingly difficult to ignore.

It was a dangerous kind of tension…the kind that often escalated into open warfare between father and daughter.

The relationship between the pair had been anything but smooth since their first meeting but it had begun to improve over recent months. With such similar personalities, there was bound to be a certain amount of friction created between them as their perceptions of the world around them clashed.

It was only on the occasions that the pretence of civility was stripped away to reveal deeper emotions that both father and daughter seemed to keep so well hidden, that it became painfully obvious that the resentment Rose still harboured towards Abe was nowhere near fading.

"Really?" Rose responded acidly to her father's goading as her jaw unlocked. "Since when? After eighteen years of being an absentee father, you now think that you have a right to interfere in my life when you've only been a part of it for less than three years? You don't, Abe, and even if I _did_ have something to hide, it would be my own damn business and none of yours!"

Hearing a quiet sigh whisper towards me from the right, I turned my head marginally to eye Lissa over Rose's head as she frowned lightly at the pair in concern as they began to verbally dissect each other.

It had been her idea to invite Abe to stay at Court during the last leg of his North American business trip and although her intentions had been good, the look of apprehension in her pale green eyes clearly showed that she was now regretting her invitation.

Meeting my gaze as the combatants between us continued to focus exclusively on each other rather than the other three people seated at the table, Lissa smiled so warily that it looked almost like a grimace.

 _You did warn me_ , she mouthed with sardonic understanding as her restless fingers smoothed over the pale pink silk of her skirt.

Nodding once, I heard a quiet snicker to my left as the other person at the table noticed our byplay.

Glancing away from her and towards the source of the smothered laughter, I realised that although Lissa might have been deeply sympathetic to her best friend's emotional turmoil, there was another at the table that wasn't as compassionate.

Seated to my left, Christian was acting as through his dessert was a fascinating subject, but the smile he couldn't hide behind his spoon wasn't fooling anyone…and neither was the enjoyment reflected in his ice-blue eyes as he looked up at me mischievously from beneath his inky-black lashes.

When Lissa had first suggested the dinner, the grin he had been unable to smother had said a thousand words. He had anticipated that at the very best that it would be an uncomfortable situation for Rose and at the very worst would develop into a full-blown argument.

To his mind, either scenario was a plus.

As he and Rose were often at loggerheads – usually over something to do with Lissa when one didn't agree with the opinion of the other – Christian wasn't above using Rose's discomfort to his advantage; he was often on the losing end of the arguments and would take retribution any way he could, even if it was vicariously.

Shaking my head at him quickly as I saw the look of amusement on his face turn to sly calculation, Christian ignored my warning as he sat back laconically and resting his arm over the back of his chair, angled his body towards us.

"Yeah, Rose," he challenged lazily as I saw Lissa roll her eyes in exasperation at him from the corner of my eye. " _Do_ you have anything to hide? If not, then why not put poor Belikov out of his misery. He actually _wants_ to marry you. How many others can claim that after spending _any_ amount of time with you?"

"Christian!"

Winking at Lissa as she scolded him, Christian smiled tauntingly at Rose as she slowly turned her head away from her father and pinned him with an expression of contempt before she sneered sweetly at him through gritted teeth.

"Mind your own damn business, Christian. No one asked you."

Fiddling with the cufflinks of his white shirt, Christian merely smiled pleasantly as Lissa continued to glower at him. "We're all friends here aren't we and this is an open discussion, so I'm making my opinion known. Abe is right; you're acting very suspiciously. Why is that?"

Sighing, I drummed my fingers impatiently against my thigh. Christian knew as well as the rest of us that Rose's views on marriage had been warped when she was young by the perceptions of Moroi/Dhampir relationships. Her parent's dysfunctional relationship hadn't helped any, so why was he persisting with this?

"How I act or behave is your opinion; it has nothing to do with me. And I don't see you rushing off to buy a ring for Lissa, so where the hell do you get off lecturing me?" Leaning forward as Christian flinched at the accusation before looking briefly up at Lissa; Rose rested her elbows on my legs as she finished twisting the knife.

"I'll tell you, like I told him; you don't have a right to interfere in my life. So stay out of it!"

Pursing his lips, he held up his hands in surrender, but there was an odd look in his eyes as he winked again at Lissa and gave up…for the moment. It made me wonder what he was up to.

Lips thinning as his impeccably trimmed goatee flattened to a thin, stabbing point, Abe reacted to his daughter's pithy remarks with an accent that was noticeably thicker…Christian might have backed down, but he wasn't about to.

"Of course I have a right to interfere in your life; you're my child…whether you like it or not. And need I remind you that you wouldn't have a life right now, young lady, if not for me. I'm the one that broke you out of the Court's prisons, remember? How long do you think you would have lasted after your sentencing?"

Wincing at the reminder of a time that we would have all preferred to forget; a time when Rose had been accused of murdering Lissa's predecessor and had been under the watchful eye of an executioner clamouring for a victim, I felt the bunching of Rose's muscles beneath my fingertips.

Knowing that the more wound up she became, the more difficult it would be to calm her down later; I untangled my fingers from the heavy fall of her hair and flattening my palm, ran it soothingly up and down her velvet-covered spine.

Dressed in a sheath dress of dark maroon, the sleeves ended at her wrists and the hem well above her knees. Hugging every sinful curve she had, the high mandarin-collar was adorned with tiny pearl buttons that got in my way as I tried to distract her, but even if they hadn't, it wouldn't have mattered.

The tension that had invaded the muscles of her back, shoulders and neck wasn't going to simply melt away at my touch.

" _You_ didn't break me out," Rose hit back aggressively as she shot forward in her seat and my caressing fingers tightened around her slender neck to keep her in her seat. "Dimitri, Eddie and Mikhail broke me out…all _you_ did was blow up half of Court at Tatiana's funeral."

Shrugging without any real concern for the property damage that had only recently been fully restored, Abe signalled to a waiter discreetly stationed against a wall to refill his coffee.

"Semantics, Rosemarie. That was merely a distraction. Do you honestly think they would have been able to accomplish your daring prison break if I hadn't? Whose idea was that in the first place, mmm?"

Rolling her eyes, Rose sat back in her seat as she crossed her darkly-stockinged legs and scoffed at her father. "What do you want…a round of applause? All you did was what you've probably been doing all your life: breaking rules and the law."

"All of that might be true, little girl, but I _am_ your father and I will ask these questions. And before you go throwing stones, I would like to remind you that you are not a paragon of virtue. The list of rules and laws that you've broken or bent to suit _your_ needs is far longer at your age than it was at mine."

Turning to address me directly, Abe smiled pleasantly but still managed to somehow make it menacing at the same time. "So I ask again. When are you planning on marrying my daughter?"

"Ughhhh!" Groaning loudly, Rose tossed her linen napkin onto her plate in disgust before she slumped back into her seat. Narrowing her eyes, she viewed her father's self-satisfied expression. It was an expression that seemed to signal he knew he was pressing on that nerve again and there was nothing that she could do about it.

It probably wasn't the wisest decision on his part; Rose could be just as devious as he was.

Stroking my thumb beneath her hairline, I watched as a diabolical gleam darkened her already dark-brown eyes; the colour was Abe's and they were suddenly just as conniving. Sliding a hand off her lap, Rose placed it on my thigh and curled her fingers around the hard muscles that leapt and quivered at her touch.

Neither Lissa nor Christian could see the deliberately provocative movement, but Abe could and Rose knew it. With the vantage point provided by his height, he could see every flex of his daughters fingers against the leg clad in charcoal-grey dress-pants and with each one the smug expression on his face fell away a little.

Knowing his daughter was purposely taunting him and also knowing the reaction wasn't going to be a good one; I covered Rose's hand with my own to keep them still, but did not remove it as I politely addressed him.

"Mr. Mazur. I understand your concerns even though I'm not a father and under the same circumstances, I would probably ask the same questions, but as Rose and I haven't discussed our future plans with each other yet, I don't think it's appropriate to discuss them with you yet. I hope you understand."

Snorting scornfully across the table from us, Abe shook his head at the diplomacy of my answer, but wasn't impressed by it. He could recognize a ploy when he saw one and much like his daughter, cut right to the chase.

"That's an evasion, my boy, and you know it."

"So what if it is?" Rose interrupted harshly as her fingers flexed violently against my leg and bit into the muscle as she defended me against her father.

"Roza," I interrupted softly, squeezing her fingers gently again. "You don't need to defend me."

"I know I don't _need_ to, comrade…but I'm going to anyway." Turning on her father again, Rose jeered. " _You've_ never been married; you've probably never even considered the possibility of it, so what the hell gives you the right to preach about it to us?"

Looking at his daughter with eyes that were suddenly no longer cunning, but oddly solemn, Abe shook his head at her. "That's not true," he countered quietly. It was an uncommon quietness for him, almost as if Rose had suddenly found the nerve she had never known she was looking for.

"I have considered marriage before – very seriously, actually."

"Really? Which one of your Moroi girlfriends did you propose to, or doesn't your memory go back that far?" Rose spat sarcastically as the pitch of her voice rose and Lissa looked on at her in what was once concern, but was now more.

They might no longer share the bond that had been forged when Lissa had pulled her back from the brink of death at fifteen, but she didn't really need it to pick up on the undertone of resentment that was making itself more known than usual. Rose was normally better at disguising it, but this was a particularly sore spot for her.

"She wasn't Moroi; she was Dhampir," Abe replied softly before he deliberately paused and dropped his bombshell. "And she was your mother."

…to be continued.


	2. Chapter 2

The ownership of all characters related to and involving the novels of _The Vampire Academy_ and _Bloodlines_ Series remain the sole property of Richelle Mead, the Penguin Group and any affiliates.

No copyrights have been infringed on maliciously.

~ The Engagement ~

Chapter Two

The silence that followed Abe's confession held us all in a state of suspended disbelief.

For a man that was so notoriously private about the dealings of his well-guarded past, it seemed almost inconceivable that he would have admitted anything regarding his relationship with Janine Hathaway, much less something this personal.

Judging by the look on his face…one that very clearly showed a mingled combination of regret and aggravation, I knew that his confession had been more in response to his daughter's relentless goading than to anything else.

He would never have willingly divulged it and looked no happier at the admission than Rose did.

Far paler than normal, she was uncharacteristically quiet as the shock of Abe's revelation stole the response of her typically caustic tongue.

Wincing faintly as the strong grip of her fingers dug deeply into the tensed muscles of my thigh, I gently pried them loose from my leg but did not release my hold on her. Turning my palm upward, I linked our fingers and watched over Rose carefully as the silence continued to build between father and daughter.

Abe paid no attention to anyone else at the table as he met Rose's unblinking gaze with an unflinching honesty reflected in the dark depths of his cunning eyes…honesty that couldn't be denied, but she seemed to find the answer to the question she had never expected all the more confusing as she shook her head slightly in a confession of muddle as she tried to process.

Those at the table with us were no different.

Lissa's troubled gazed travelled between Rose's stiff posture and Abe's as she tried to mask her surprise and failed miserably despite her normally composed façade whilst Christian stared at him as though seeing an entirely different side of him…one that he didn't know entirely how to react to.

My own astonishment aside, I tried to reason through what Abe had just said as the stigmas of the past continued to raise their ugly heads.

The perception of Moroi/dhampir relationships had only begun to change in recent years thanks in large to the marriage of dhampir, Mikhail Tanner and Moroi, Sonya Karp, but there was still naturally wide-spread scepticism amongst the purist's. Change for most was hard to accept and for the traditionalist it was almost impossible, but change had nevertheless begun to happen.

To think that Abe would have considered marriage to a dhampir twenty years ago when the stigma of it would have been almost too difficult to bear was almost unthinkable and spoke of emotions that had run far deeper than either he or Janine had ever revealed before.

"What do you mean you proposed to mom?" Rose blurted out disbelievingly, finally regaining her ability to speak as the astonishment raised the pitch of her voice. "When? Why? What did she say? Why has she never told me about this…why have _you_ never told me about this?"

Ending her barrage aggressively, the almost accusatory tone of Rose's voice wasn't lost to anyone, especially not Abe, whose eyes had narrowed at the complaint.

Swapping hands as I saw Rose's agitation stiffen the muscles of her back and shoulders, I ran the right over her rigid spine again in an effort to calm her down. Flinching lightly from beneath my touch before she resettled, I knew the reaction wasn't because of my touch but merely because she was so tightly wound that the slightest brush of my fingers against her skin would have felt like a blow.

Balefully eyeing her, Abe's look of remorse was quickly overshadowed by irritation reflected in his shifty eyes, but he answered Rose nevertheless.

"Well, clearly she turned me down or else we wouldn't be having this conversation, now would we? Besides, it was a long time ago and there was never any real need to tell you any of this before I realised just how stupid the pair of you are being…and I should think the answer to the _why_ would be fairly obvious, Rosemarie."

Scowling darkly at his deliberate flippancy despite having inherited it from him and having it in common with Christian, the shock that had gripped Rose suddenly began to wear off as her own baleful presence made itself known through her growling reply. "Because she was pregnant with me? That's why you proposed?"

Scoffing tightly, Rose shook her head at him as she fidgeted with her dessert spoon before tossing it onto her plate with a ringing clatter it a fit of temper. "You're such a romantic, Abe. Tying yourself to a forbidden relationship and having a child that was never going to be a pureblood Moroi...how noble of you."

Reaching up to fiddle with the golden loop in his left ear, Abe's exasperation began to manifest itself into a physical brand of frustration as palpable as Rose's as he pulled and tugged on it agitatedly. He wasn't used to defending himself to anyone; not many who knew him or his lethal reputation would ever challenge his word, much less question him, but his twenty-year old daughter wasn't most and wasn't about to back down.

"I didn't propose to your mother when we found out she was pregnant with you, Rose. By that stage we already knew that it was dangerous for either of you to be associated with me in any way, so it would have been pointless to fool ourselves otherwise…we also would never have risked you like that.

Having vulnerabilities to leverage in my line of work, even then, would have been potentially disastrous…and you, my child, would have been the greatest liability of my life to those I called enemy."

Sighing, Abe abandoned his agitated motion against his earlobe and looked past us for the first time since sitting down; finding some indefinable point above our heads as his own memories swept him away to a past that very few knew anything about.

"I knew that in the beginning too, but I also knew that I loved Janine almost from the start of our relationship and so because I was young and arrogant and thought that her feelings for me would overcome any reluctance she might have, I proposed about two weeks after we met and was summarily rejected. That didn't stop me from pursuing of course and I continued to propose until the day she told me she was pregnant with you."

"It was only then that I knew that any relationship we would have in the future would be at a distance or during fleeting encounters. If others found out that her child was also mine, despite having a different name, a country of origin or an already formidable guardian for a mother, it could have led to complications that neither of us wanted…or could afford – not when it would involve our child."

"You see, Rose, your mother and I didn't end our relationship because we cared about the opinion of others or because we were scared that it would create a scandal that neither of us could live with…we ended it to keep you safe. Yes, it would have been difficult to have anything permanent, but we were willing to risk that because it was what we both wanted, but ironically, it was what neither of us got."

"You wanted to marry her _before_ she fell pregnant?" Rose questioned softly as her face once again began to drain of colour and she became very still.

Nodding, Abe sighed heavily. "Your perception of who we are as people and parents is severely warped by our past actions, Rose and admittedly we both have to accept responsibility for that – at the time, we both thought it for the best, but that can change now. We can try and help you with your future, but not if you insist on being pig-headed about it."

Sitting forward in his chair suddenly, his obsidian eyes bore into ours and he all but pinned us to our seats. "It doesn't have to be that way with the two of you – not like it was with us. You have the means, the ways and the opportunities to make a real relationship…a real marriage and you're wasting it."

"We're not wasting it, Mr. Mazur." I replied with quiet respect; my mind still in a fog of disbelief as I tried to think around the baring of his emotions.

"You are!" Abe countered with aggressive fervour against my point of argument. His guardians – stationed as discreetly against the walls as the waiters – took a step forward as his irritation exploded through the quiet, warm room in physical aggression, but with a slashing movement of his hand, they stopped in their tracks and retreated just as silently.

"The life-span of the average guardian isn't definite," he continued with more passion than I had ever seen displayed before as he made his stand against what he saw as our unequalled stubbornness. "Now I know that neither of you are run-of-the-mill guardian's, but in the position that you are both in, you're in the line of fire more than normal. You don't have the rest of your lives to waste on waiting for the right time."

Thumping his fist on the table with enough force to shake the crystal vases overflowing with orchids and orange blossom, Abe continued on with his rant. "The right time is now; you've only just begun to change the views of dhampir relationships in our world – you can't afford to back down from it for any reason."

Surging gracefully to his feet, Abe dabbed at his mouth with the napkin before he tossed it carelessly onto the plate and delivered his parting shot. "Don't waste it like I did; don't regret it like I do and _never_ take it for granted."

Inclining his head towards Lissa, he smiled graciously at her, but it was tight and seemed far more forced than he could hide. "Thank you for the wonderful meal, Your Majesty, and for the invitation. Your hospitality has been impeccable, as always, but I'm afraid my flight leaves at midday and I have other business arrangements to see to before I leave."

Standing almost uncertainly, Lissa smiled at him kindly, but seemed unable to find the right words. Bending over her hand, he kissed it lightly before moving around the table towards Christian. Standing, he shook Abe's hand, but eyed us both warily as Abe turned away from him and moved around the table.

Rising, I met his outstretched hand and the hard, business-like shake of it as he looked me directly in the eye. The communication between us was silent, but not for a moment did I misunderstand it. It might have seemed like the clearing of his conscious to Lissa and Christian or the defence of his actions to his daughter, but to me, it sounded like a warning…one that I had no intention of ignoring.

Bending towards his still-seated child, Abe kissed Rose fleetingly on the forehead before he stroked his fingers lightly down her left cheekbone; a cheekbone that stood out starkly beneath the unnatural pallor of her skin…I had never seen her so subdued.

"I know you think I'm meddling and to a degree I am, but I'm also a concerned parent who loves his daughter, even if she thinks he doesn't and sometimes, just sometimes…I also know what's best for you even when you don't. Don't waste the time you have, Rose."

Lingering for the space of a single heart-beat, he turned away smoothly on his heel and headed for the door; his guardian's immediately falling into place as his flanks as the ornamental double-doors were opened and he was ushered out with all the ceremony he could muster.

"Well," Christian sounded as the silence after Abe's departure grew uneasily. "That was an interesting end to an uncomfortable dinner."

Ignoring Christian's remark, Lissa brushed aside a stray strand of hair curling around the side of Rose's face as her fingers glided gently over her cheek. "Are you okay?" It shouldn't have been necessary to ask…not after enduring a dinner filled with loud complaints and less than subtle barbs, but Rose's unnatural stillness was concerning – and not only to Lissa.

"Roza?" I prompted softly as I watched the gently unfocused pupils dilate in the flickering candle light. Turning to me, her expression was pensive, but the furiously burning depths of her eyes contradicted her blank expression.

Blinking rapidly, Rose seemed to shake herself free of her thoughts as her shoulders squared and she smiled firstly towards me before turning towards Lissa, but the gesture seemed just as forced as Abe's had earlier.

"Yeah…I'm fine, Liss. Don't sweat it." Patting the hand that was now cupping her cheek, Rose nodded once in what was her customary show of bravado as she tried to convince those around her that she was fine, but it failed miserably – none of us did.

Preoccupied by my own thoughts as I found myself thinking about Abe's warning and the darkly pained expression in his normally shuttered eyes. Feathering my fingers gently along Rose's nape as she and Lissa talked quietly amongst themselves, I was vaguely aware that Christian had joined the conversation, but their words were merely a mumble of conversation to a mind that was already racing.

Although Rose and I had never seriously discussed marriage, it had been an idea that was never far from my thoughts. Knowing that she considered herself too young had kept me from forcing the issue with anything more than the odd teasing remark or suggestion, but as Abe's words amplified through me, I realised he was right…there was no need to wait.

The fragility of our mortality aside, our lives were no longer exclusively lived by the rules set forth by others. We were no longer governed by what they said was right or wrong, so really, there was no reason to put it off any longer.

Regret was a powerful talisman…one that I had suffered from already and I had no intention of repeating that mistake ever again. Not where Rose was concerned. I knew that it wouldn't be easy to convince her; my stomach knotted as I imagined the argument I was in for, but convince her I would.

Raising our linked hands, I kissed the back of it as I gently tugged Rose to her feet. Surprise flitted across her exquisitely exotic features, but she didn't question me. Rising with us, Lissa and Christian looked on expectantly, but I shook my head at them over Rose's as I rested my chin atop it and wrapped my arms around her waist.

There would be time later for more questions.

Half listening to Rose and Lissa as they continued their conversation, Christian walked to my side with a look of almost sheepish apology on his raw-boned face. It was an unusual look for him. He, like Rose, was very rarely apologetic for his actions.

"Sorry," he began as he shook his head slightly whilst still smiling at me. Sliding his hands into the pockets of his tailored slacks, he looked over Lissa and Rose. "Couldn't resist."

"Mmm," was my non-committal reply, nodding once at him as I tightened my hold around Rose's toned midriff.

"Listen, I know I probably just caused you some trouble, but would you mind coming with me into Philadelphia tomorrow? I know it's your weekend off, but I could use your help."

Nodding, I frowned curiously at him. "Of course, Christian. It's no problem at all. Is something wrong with Smitrovich?" Cooper Smitrovich was my relief guard and normally far guard when away from the safety of Court. Ukrainian by birth, he was little over a year younger and just as dedicated, but maybe something had happened between the pair that I didn't know about.

"No, no, no. Cooper's great, it's just that…well, I would prefer someone that I know better. As a…friend, rather than a guardian."

Arching a brow in mildly pleased surprise, I nodded without further argument.

Named as his guardian during a time that was filled with painful memories of betrayal and death, Christian had ultimately lost the only family he had left with the subsequent execution of his aunt for murder. Knowing that I should have maintained a strictly professional relationship from the beginning despite our familiarity, I had been unable to.

Partly because our grief, although on different levels, was shared.

Natasha Ozera had been someone I respected for her beliefs and admired for her courage as she defied convention. For a brief time, I had considered her as the potential to be more as I tried to purge myself of the love that I had felt was doomed, but as her true nature of manipulative treachery and malice had been revealed, the admiration I had once felt had turned into contempt.

I had mourned the loss of what she might have become had the cruelty of her jealous towards Rose not manifested, but I knew that I could never truly forgive her…not when she had deliberately placed Rose's life in danger by setting her up to take the fall for her treason and for leaving Christian alone in a world where he had needed her.

"After breakfast?" I offered as he smiled and nodded once before casting a quick glance towards Lissa. It wasn't a look I would normally associate with him when looking at her, but it made me suddenly all the more curious to find out what he was up to in Philadelphia.

Pressing my lips to Rose's temple, Christian hooked his arm around Lissa's waist as he pulled her to his side. Eyeing him quizzically, Lissa smiled before kissing his cheek and murmuring against it. "What was that all about, by the way?"

"What was what about, Lissa?"

"Don't play coy with me, Christian Ozera…you know what I'm talking about."

"I do?"

"Yes, you do." Rose interjected cuttingly as she shifted against me to glare towards Christian; I tightened my hold on her in silent warning, but she ignored both it and me. "She's talking about you throwing me under the bus with Abe."

Scratching his chin contemplatively, Christian's black brows rose as he thought through her accusation and his answer. He might have apologized to me, but he wasn't above goading Rose when the chance presented itself. "No…no, I don't think I did that. All I was doing was helping out a fellow Moroi who has to deal with a stubborn dhampir in his life. You know what I'm like; Rose…I'm all about helping others."

Muttering condescendingly beneath her breath, Rose shook her head. "Yeah, you're a real champion of the people, Christian. Just bear in mind that I'm naturally vindictive, have a very short fuse and a very, very long memory."

"I already know that, Rose…but maybe _you_ should remember that _your_ boyfriend is my guardian and I have personally seen him hand you your ass before, so be careful with your threats."

Feeling her hackles standing on end at the implication that she was easily defeated, I murmured into her ear to calm her down. "Let it go, Roza. You know he's baiting you for his own amusement, not for anything else. It's not worth getting worked up about."

Winking at Rose cheekily as she stood fuming in my arms, Lissa quickly interceded before Christian could set her off. "Enough, Christian. Leave Rose alone, please." We both knew just how volatile the pair were around each other and although we had avoided bloodshed between father and daughter, the open warfare that these two practiced in was far more destructive because they already knew every weak spot the other had.

Smirking down at her, Christian grinned broadly but seemed no less inclined to listen. "Arguing is how we communicate, Liss. And besides, Dimitri's got a tight hold on her so she can't do anything."

"You think that Dimitri can protect you from me, Christian?" Rose voiced dangerously as I felt her body coil in preparation. I knew that she would never actually attack him, but her anger was slowly turning into physical aggression.

"Yes," he answered mockingly. "But you'd probably made him regret it for the rest of his life."

"Oh, enough, you two." Lissa griped quietly as she turned slightly to smack Christian lightly on the chest "Dimitri and I have had enough arguments for one night." Facing us again, Lissa's face showed the regret for her decision before her words could.

"I'm really sorry for inviting Abe, Rose. If I had known he would upset you like this, I would never have even suggested it. I just wanted the two of you to spend time together that wasn't because you _had_ to, but because you _wanted_ to. I shouldn't have done that…I should have listened to you when you said it was a bad idea."

Leaning back against me, Rose shook her head at Lissa's apology whilst smiling more naturally than before at her concern. "It's okay, Liss. I knew why you suggested it and if it was anyone other than Abe, the gesture would have been appreciated. He didn't really upset me; he just caught me off guard. I would never have expected that he wanted to marry Janine."

Reaching out as a way of showing that she didn't hold her responsible for anything, Rose tangled their fingers together and squeezed. "I'm fine…don't worry about me, okay?"

Holding my tongue, I narrowed my eyes at her blatant lie but only because it seemed to pacify Lissa for the moment…she was _anything_ but fine.

Parting, we split at the doors as I reassured Christian that I would meet him the next day and headed towards our suite through the quietly empty hallways of palace housing. Greeting the occasional guardian stationed at the junction points of the corridor's, we passed the glass patio doors leading out into a central quadrangle that had been converted into a private garden used exclusively for the reigning monarch.

Pausing at them, we stood together and watched the gentle fall of late November snow. Blanketing everything it touched in frost and suspended animation, the pre-dawn light filtering slowly through the breaks in the treeline cast glistening light through the ice encasing the leaves and bark.

Shivering lightly, Rose burrowed deeper into my side. Even though the buildings had central heating for winter, the touch of icy coldness still seemed able to penetrate the well-insulated rooms. Pulling her securely into my arms, I wrapped them around her as I cradled her to my chest and rested my chin on the top of her head.

"You can try and lie to Lissa and hope that you've convinced her, but I'm not Lissa and I'm not buying the ' _I'm fine'_ story, Roza."

Chuckling softly, Rose curled her arms around my own as she rested her head on the centre of my chest. "Well now there's the problem, comrade. You don't believe me when I lie…it's very annoying. You're lucky I put up with you."

"That's not the reason you put up with me, Rose."

"No, you're right…it's the sex."

Muffling my laughter into her hair, I inhaled deeply and pulled her along with me as we slowly walked towards our rooms and our arms looped around the waist of the other. "Tell me what you're really thinking, Rose…what you're really feeling; Abe's confession shook you. You can try and deny that as much as you like but I know you better than that. Silence is _not_ your natural state."

"I don't know where to _start_ thinking, Dimitri," she muttered, laying her head against my shoulder. "Or what to feel. When we sat down for dinner I was expecting lots of things from Abe and for the most part he delivered, but I wasn't expecting him to confess to wanting to marry my mother."

"I mean, I had always hoped that there must have been something more between them than simple biological urges, but I don't think that I've ever thought it was deeper than mild affection. I mean, they're such different people. My mother is upstanding, morally righteous and would never put a foot wrong and my father breaks rules and laws left, right and centre and is morally ambiguous…they have _nothing_ in common."

"You," I answered simply as I opened the door to our rooms and gently ushered her in. "They have you in common, and before there was you, there _mild affection_ as you put it, was obviously far stronger than anyone realised."

"Yeah, fine, I'll give you that, but how could two people who are the polar opposite even get together in the first place?"

"Who knows? Opposites have been known to attract…and listening to you describe your parents, don't you think that they sound a little like us, but in reverse? I'm like Janine and you're like Abe and we manage to make it work."

Looking up at me in astonishment, Rose opened her mouth to protest, but abruptly shut it as she realised I was right – the look she gave me was fierce disgruntlement; like she knew she couldn't argue against me and wasn't happy about it.

"We're also very different people, but our core beliefs are the same and that's our common link." I reminded her gently as I shut the door firmly behind us and steered her towards the lounge. "It's why we understand each other so well."

"So that's what keeps us together? A common link of knowing the difference between what's right and wrong?" Rose teased as she rubbed her hands up and down her arms in a bid to create friction and changed course, heading towards our bedroom.

"Partly…it's also because I can't keep my hands off you."

"Back to sex then, huh?" Rose asked as she chuckled beneath her breath. Kicking off her heels as she went, they lay haphazardly on the thick cream carpet of the living room as she disappeared.

Shaking my head in mild exasperation as it felt as though I was always picking up after her, I bent to retrieve them and carried them in after her.

"I'll acknowledge that I'm more Abe and you're more Janine, but I think you have a little more Abe in you than you'd like to admit, comrade." Rose called over her shoulder as she flipped the light switch for the bathroom and went in.

Frowning at her remark, I walked towards the walk-in closet with her shoes. "Why do you say that?"

"Because Janine Hathaway would _never_ have slept with her seventeen-year old student, but Abe Mazur _definitely_ would have."

Stopping in my tracks, I turned towards the bathroom as I growled out. "You were almost eighteen, Rose. And I told you we couldn't!"

" _Almost_ doesn't count," she sang out as her words echoed faintly against the walls of the bathroom. "And as I remember it, I agreed that we couldn't, but it was your lips on mine, not the other way around."

Pocking her head around the door, she grinned cheekily at me. "Don't sweat it, comrade. They say woman end up with men who are exactly like their father's, so I guess my theory must be right." Winking at my scowl, she chuckled throatily as the bathroom door closed.

Shaking my head indignantly at being compared to the likes of Ibrahim Mazur; a man who was no better than a glorified gangster, I walked into the closet and placed Rose's shoes neatly on the rack as I slung off my tie and hung the jacket. Rolling up the sleeves of my navy blue dress-shirt, I thought of a hundred instances that I could argue against the comparison, but I also realised that despite my indignation, parts of what Rose had said was true.

So many factors had contributed to that night in the cabin…the night we had first made love. Many of them had been based on my own fear that I would somehow lose Rose after the events of Spokane, the plane trip back from Court and her Spirit-induced rages, but the main reason had been the defeat of my own resistance against her.

She was right; Janine would have stayed resolute, but Abe's wouldn't have.

It gave my perspective a slightly different angle of approach when regarding Abe…and also made me more determined to listen to his warning.

Glancing over to the right, I listened for Rose before walking to the back of the closet. Crouching, I pulled out a pair of old combat-training boots sitting against the far wall. They were heavy-duty and scruffy from use over the years and were the perfect hiding place.

Of all the things that Rose loved to filch from my side of the walk-in: t-shirts, boxers…socks; shoes were the one thing that she couldn't and so she would never have given them a second thought.

Digging into the right boot, I found the small box I had been hiding since long before Rose had turned twenty in March. Clutching it, I rose quickly and shoved it into the pocket of my slacks. We might never have seriously discussed marriage, but that didn't mean I wasn't eternally optimistic about the possibility of it.

Replacing the boot to make it look as though nothing had been disturbed, I padded quietly back into the lounge and headed to the hearth.

Quickly building a small fire to chase away the last of the lingering cold in the room as the dawn crested the tree-line, I stood at the mantelpiece and stared down at the flames as the kindling caught; my fingers finding the box as they rolled it restlessly around in my pocket.

It was only then that I noticed that my hands had begun to tremble.

…to be continued.


	3. Chapter 3

The ownership of all characters related to and involving the novels of _The Vampire Academy_ and _Bloodlines_ Series remain the sole property of Richelle Mead, the Penguin Group and any affiliates.

No copyrights have been infringed on maliciously.

A/n: I know…I know. I'm sorry; the holiday's got in the way. I promise, as my New Year's Resolution, that I'll try and post more consistently. Belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

~ The Engagement ~

Chapter Three

"What were you talking to Christian about earlier?

Clenching the hands that shook slightly from tension into tight fists deep within my pockets, I cursed myself silently in Russian for being fool enough to feel nervous in the first place as my fingers continued to restlessly roll the small velvet box.

Turning away from the mantelpiece, I shifted fluidly to cross my legs at the ankles as I leant back against the warm stone-work, feeling the heat from the rising flames behind me seep into my taut muscles as I faced Rose and her question.

Watching as she approached me silently across the thick carpeting, I exhaled roughly in irritable frustration with myself as the strain that had been steadily building along every seam of muscles, sinew and bone since I had made my decision slowly began to drain away at the sight of her.

 _You're making more out of this than you should be, Dimitri_ , I reasoned calmly with myself as my eyes skimmed with intimate familiarity over every curve and swell of Rose's curvaceous body. My pulse quickened and hammered through my veins as a heat not created by the fire burnt through them with the thundering pulse.

It wasn't that I didn't _know_ that I would be facing an uphill battle to convince her that marriage now wasn't a terrible idea. My stomach still clenched at the thought of the fight I was in for even as I felt my frame of mind settling into unflappable determination, but I also _knew_ Rose…better sometimes, than she knew herself.

Of course, that being said, it didn't mean that I had _nothing_ to worry about.

Notoriously difficult on a good day and more than a handful to deal with on every other, if Rose thought for a single second that my proposal had _anything_ to do with Abe's confessions, she would reject the idea before I had the ring anywhere _near_ her finger.

She was already going to think that the timing was suspicious and far too convenient to be a coincidence; how could she not, but I was more than determined to listen to Abe's cautionary tale. His regret was too deep to ignore and not something that I was keen to repeat.

"He asked me to go with him into Philadelphia." I answered quietly, my eyes following her carefully as she sank gracefully to the floor a foot away from where I stood and folded her legs beneath her. The short hem of her dress rode up the length of her thighs still encased in the stockings as my fists clenched for an entirely different reason this time.

Frowning at my reply, Rose tilted her head upwards as she scowled and complained loudly in the quiet of the room, her features pinching tightly into displeasure.

"No! It's your weekend off! You haven't had one in more than a month, Dimitri! He has Cooper on duty with him and if he needs extra's Hayworth and Simonovich are on standby. He doesn't need you to hold his hand all the time. This is ridiculous!"

Crossing to Rose as her agitation with Christian again flared up, I crouched at her feet. Hiking the legs of my pants, I removed my hands from my pockets to play with strands of the loose hair framing her high cheekbones and the exotic slant of her eyes.

"He wasn't asking me to go with him as a guardian, Rose. More as a friend."

"And of course, you couldn't say no, could you?" She argued against my gentle reply with a wry tone that wasn't completely devoid of anger, but seemed more accepting of what I had agreed to.

Shaking her head at me in loving exasperation, Rose smirked mockingly; reaching up to tuck the strands of hair that had swung loose from the tie at my nape behind my ears. "You are _such_ a boy-scout, Dimitri. You know that right?"

Closing the distance between us, I lowered myself to the floor in front of her. Folding my legs to match her pose identically, I shuffled closer until her knees met the high points of my shins before playing again with the thick strands of hair swept over her shoulder.

"First you accuse me of being like Abe, now you compare me to a boy? Should I be expecting any more insults today, Roza, or are you done?" I asked dryly whilst winding a tendril around my forefinger and tugging gently in warning…a warning, if judging by the look of mischief on her face, Rose was intent on ignoring.

"I don't know. The day's just started and I'm only getting warmed up, comrade."

Lunging forward suddenly, Rose slide the inquisitive fingers of her right hand into my bound hair and gently pulled loose the hair-tie. Catching those same fingers with my own, I kissed them before latching onto the hair-tie and sliding it around my wrist. She already stole enough of them…she didn't need another one to add to the pile that she could never find.

Frowning at me and the hair-tie that was now out of her reach, Rose narrowed her eyes at my deliberately innocent expression and decided to change tactic. Hunting for my other hand, she linked them together and intertwined our fingers…smaller, softly calloused digits against larger, harder calloused ones until our palms met.

Twisting her hands suddenly to the side, Rose tried to grapple with me whilst she thought I wasn't paying attention, but she couldn't manipulate the angle to her advantage and with barely any effort on my part, I held the position and kept her fingers clenched firmly within my own.

Growling competitively beneath her breath, Rose tried to flip our hands around again, but I locked my wrists into place and kept her immobile whilst I felt a smile of pure enjoyment alter the austere features of my face at her antics.

"We've played this game many times before, Roza, and you know that I'm stronger than you are, so why even bother?"

This was a game of one-upmanship that Rose seldom won, but seemed to enjoy when arguing with me. I had always thought that it was her attempt to try and dominate me in some small way…a way of equalizing the gap between our physical capabilities and so that we would be on equal footing.

What she had yet to realise was that her power over me was far more consuming than merely the physical…she was stronger than I was in all the ways that mattered.

"Strength isn't always the deciding factor, Dimitri," Rose grunted at my wry remark and huffed in aggravation; twisting again against my hold. "And I bother because one day, I'm actually going to win this."

"Mmmm. We'll see."

Flexing my fingers, I crushed them gently over the webbing between her own and twisted counter-clockwise to bring them to my chest, pulling her forward to trap her against me.

"Boy-scout insult aside, Rose. I'm curious as to what Christian wants to do in Philadelphia. He rarely leaves Court and when he does, it's usually with Lissa, but from the way he was trying to cover our conversation, it doesn't seem as though Lissa knows about his plans. Don't you want to know what he's up to?"

Muttering beneath her breath as I kept her hands tightly bound to my chest, Rose tried to tug them loose again, but I merely smirked down at her as I waited for her reply.

"I don't need you to tell me what he's up to, Dimitri. I already know."

Yanking aggressively against my restraining hands, Rose again tried but instead of frustrating her, I allowed the rigid muscles of my upper biceps and forearms to slacken gradually this time so that she could pull them back so that they were positioned between us again.

"You do?" I asked bemusedly, not paying attention to the gleam of deviltry in Rose's eyes. "What does he want in Philadelphia?"

"A ring."

"A ring?!" I uttered gruffly, losing my grip for a split second as the surprise of Rose's words sent a ripple of reaction through my body. Feeling it, Rose capitalized on it immediately by swivelling her wrists sharply outwards and bending my hands back towards my wrists.

"Gotcha!" She crowed victoriously, laughing up into my face…a face that felt as though it was set in stone as her words spiralled around my head.

Wasn't it bad enough already that I had to deal with what Rose considered Abe's inference? Now I had to deal with the knowledge that if Rose was right, Christian wanted to propose to Lissa and she knew about it! The only option I was left with was finding a way to propose to Rose so that she didn't feel set up…which would be all but impossible, because it was _exactly_ what it would feel like.

Rotating sharply, I countered and righted out hands before asking as a look of disgruntlement crossed her features at my easy reversal of her hold. "Are you sure that's what it's about, Rose?"

"Yep."

"Did he say something to you?"

Scoffing, Rose arched a withering brow at my question. "I'm not exactly Christian's sounding board, Dimitri, and even if I was, I doubt he would tell me because he'd be scared that I would let it slip to Lissa. That's why I couldn't resist the dig earlier about him rushing off to buy a ring."

Well that explained that, but why was she so sure of herself…"Then how can you be certain?"

Shrugging, Rose dug her thumbs into the side of my hand to gain the upper hand, but I kept her almost completely restrained. "Woman's intuition."

"There is no such thing, Roza."

"Of course there is. You men just call it gut instinct."

"Gut instinct, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Fine," I relented in exasperation, realizing that with the mood Rose was in I could be asking the same question for the rest of the day. "I'll concede that you have a so-called intuition based on a feminine hunch, but that still doesn't explain how you can be so sure that he's going to propose."

"It's simple really, comrade…Christian is predictable."

"All right, I'll bite. How so?"

"Next month is Christmas. He knows that it's Lissa favourite holiday and he's so unoriginal that he'll probably propose either on Christmas day or on New Year's Day. He knows that things have quietened down around here enough for a wedding to be organized without it being a complete security nightmare."

"Jill is safe and sound and anyone opposed to Lissa's reign has either been silenced by her rule so far or has gone slinking off into the sunset with their tails between their legs. He also knows that as our ruling monarch, she has to marry soon and have kids…I'm telling you, comrade. He's looking for a ring."

Hearing Rose's explanation, I could hardly find fault with any of it. Lissa was only slightly younger than Rose, who would turn twenty-one in only a few months' time and although it wasn't strictly necessary for the current monarch to be married, it would be seen as a settling by all those who might still seek to criticize her rule.

"She'll accept if he does." I voiced quietly, finding my gaze locking intently on Rose as the small box in my pocket suddenly felt as though it was weighing me down.

"Of course she will. For some reason, only God knows why, she actually loves him. Though why anyone would want to get married this young, I will never understand." Twisting her lips scathingly to the side, Rose narrowed her dark eyes as she searched for any weaknesses in my defences, but I was barely conscious of her hunt.

"Getting married young isn't necessarily a bad thing, Roza. Look at Adrian and Sydney…they make it work."

My Moroi cousin and his Alchemist wife had been married in secret almost two years ago and were still keeping their relationship out of the public eye. Contact with them had been limited as only a handful knew of their location in Main where they lived their lives in relative obscurity with their son.

A son that was not theirs and who held the key to an entirely new generation of Dhampire.

"Yeah, okay. I'll give you that one. They do seem happy," Rose agreed grudgingly, pulling me from the tangle of my thoughts. "But they're the exception, not the rule."

"Rules are meant to be broken…you tell me that every day and you do it better than anyone I've ever met."

"I don't break rules, comrade. I merely bend them to suit my needs."

"You break them, Roza…all the time."

"Hey! I've got better at it. I don't break them _that_ often."

Smiling at her mild resentment, I pulled her closer by using our linked hands as leverage, pressing my lips to the corner of her mouth as I murmured. "Could have fooled me."

Feeling her smile against my mouth, Rose turned her head fractionally to the side as she whispered against my lips. "Yeah? Well maybe I can't fool you, but I am about to win!" Rotating sharply, Rose tried to take advantage of what she thought was my distraction, but I simply laughed softly against her lips before kissing her and holding her hands tightly within my own again.

"Damn it," she grumbled, glaring at me before trying again, only this time, she rose to her knees to try and out manoeuvre me through the advantage of height. Feeling the strength of her honed muscles and bone knit together to form a stronger hold, I decided the game was at an end.

If I let her continue, she would only become more irate and I needed her malleable right now.

Unlocking our fingers quickly, I pitched forward to wrap my arms around Rose's waist and lifting her bodily, deposited her on my lap. Spreading her legs as the dress rode up to beneath her buttocks, she straddled me and curled her arms around my neck as my fingers found and played with the edge of her thigh-high stockings and the lacy ruffle of the elastic.

Lacing her fingers through the fall of my hair, Rose looked at me suspiciously from eyes narrowed with equal amounts of irritation and interest at my interruption. "That's not fair. You're trying to distract me because I was about to win."

"Would you be angry with me if I said yes?" I murmured huskily as the blunt edge of my fingernails scratched lightly along her warm, bare flesh.

Sighing deeply, Rose shivered and shifted over my lap. "That depends."

"On what?"

"On how you make it up to me."

Nuzzling against her jaw, my lips pressed along the bone as I moved further south. "How would you like me to make it up to you?"

"Do you want me to spell it out for you…or should I show you?"

Nipping gently at the slight point of her chin, I kissed upwards until I reached her plump bottom lip, attaching my teeth to the fullness without leaving any mark as I gently tugged.

"I've never been very good at spelling, Roza. You'll have to show me."

"Liar. Your academic record is perfect. Adrian said to me once that if you actually managed to misspell something by mistake that you would consider it as big a failure as letting a Strigoi slip by. Oh, that reminds me. I got an e-mail from Sydney last night. She wants us to spend some time with them over Christmas."

"Do you want to go?"

"Yeah. Actually, I do. I want to see how much Deacon's grown and I miss Eddie."

Nodding, I drew small circles over the smooth thigh above the belt as my fingers inched higher, smiling as the shiver this time became a shudder of desire. "He was your last link to Mason and a good friend. It's understandable that you would miss him."

Losing Mason so tragically and at such a young age at the hands of the Strigoi that Rose had ultimately killed was something that I knew she would never fully recover from. Eddie had been Mason's best friend and had almost lost his own life in the same incident that had claimed Mason's.

To Rose, Eddie was the very last physical representation of him.

"Yes," Her concession came as the ghost of his tragic death again haunted the depths of her dark eyes. "But it's also because he reminds me of you. He's calm, dependable, strong…sexy."

"Sexy?!" I growled threateningly, pulling away to scowl at her Rose even as she laughed at me.

"You don't think he's sexy, comrade?"

"No," I gritted from between clenched teeth, knowing she was trying to rile me. "I do not."

"Really? I've always thought he was. That floppy blond hair, hazel eyes and lean, lanky body…it's just _such_ a turn-on."

"Rose!" Barking at her even as she continued to laugh at my outrage, I clamped my fingers across her buttocks and carried her swiftly to the floor in front of the fire, cradling her to my chest as I kept from crushing her beneath me.

"Relax!" she teased as the orange of the firelight illuminated the left of her face whilst the golden light of the sun did the same to her right. "You know I'm only joking. There isn't anyone sexier than you."

"Good to hear it, Roza."

Shifting my weight towards the fire and partially off from her, I kept one hand beneath her head and the other along her side, gliding it up and down her ribs in a gently tickling motion as she tried to squirm out from beneath me.

"Hey, comrade?"

"Mmmm?" Sliding my fingers lower, I cupped them over her hip bone and moved inwards towards her pubic bone as she shifted away from my fingers.

"Remember how you wanted me to show you how you could make it up to me?"

"Yes?"

"I changed my mind." Wrapping her legs around my waist swiftly, Rose bucked beneath me and threw my weight to the side long enough to angle her hips and push me onto my back. Straddling me again, Rose shackled my hands to the carpet as she bowed forward over me, grinning at me playfully.

"I win."

Remarking dryly, my hips nudged upwards between the v of her legs. "Don't you always?"

Releasing my hands, Rose crossed her arms over my chest and rested her chin on them as she looked at me, but neither of us said anything more. Sinking my fingers into the hair lying against her scalp, I massaged gently as Rose signed and closed her eyes; all but purring in pleasure.

Smirking to myself in quiet satisfaction, I continued to massage as Rose's body relaxed completely against me and her breathing deepened. I knew that I could quite easily put her to sleep if I continued with this, but it wouldn't be for a while…sleep right now wasn't my objective.

"Tired?" I asked a few minutes later, shifting her more comfortably as she began to play with the buttons on my shirt. I knew I was stalling for time, but it took so little to set Rose off that I didn't feel like I had any other choice.

"No, not really." Her voice was drowsy, but not sleepy.

"Good, because I have something that I need to talk to you about."

Lifting back the long, dark lashes of her lids, Rose looked at my curiously. It was either the tone of my voice or the fact that I was starting out tentatively that had aroused her interest, but she said nothing as she again propped her chin on her arms.

"What is it?"

Untangling my fingers from her hair, they searched instead along the seam of her spin and the tiny buttons along the length of it as I searched for the right words to start this conversation.

"After hearing Abe's confession…has it changed your mind about marriage?

At once, all drowsiness that might have still lingered in Rose's eyes evaporated. Narrowing now with far more than just a hint of suspicion as her quick brain worked out that I had been deliberately handling her, she sat up and glared down at me; propping herself up with her palms pressed against my chest.

"No, Dimitri. It hasn't changed my mind. Damn it, you said that weren't going to pressure me about marriage! You said you understood that I was too young and wanted to wait."

"None of that has changed, Rose," I argued back, sliding my hands to her hips to lock her in place against me as I cursed myself viciously for making the wrong move. "But you have to admit that he did make a very good point. There isn't any reason for us to wait. Our marriage, like our relationship, would be accepted."

"Accepted or not, I don't want to get married now!"

Sitting up until we were nose to nose, I wrapped my arms around Rose's midriff and pulled her stiff torso towards my own, trying to reason with her now instead of demanding…I already felt as though I was on a slippery slope.

"You said that you wouldn't consider it before you were twenty. You're almost twenty-one. How is this an unreasonable request? We don't have to get married right now. We can have a long engagement…as long as you like."

I made that promise now, but I knew that I wouldn't be keeping it. Knowing Rose as well as I did, she would take my words and run with them, drawing out our engagement for as long as she could. It would be _years_ before I got her anywhere near an altar.

Struggling against my embrace, Rose spat angrily. "The timeframe is doesn't matter, Dimitri, because it's not happening; I'm twenty-years old for Godsakes! Why are you pushing for this so hard? Is this because of Christian or because of Abe? What he said doesn't affect our lives. I can't believe you're letting him manipulate you this way."

"This has nothing to do with Abe or Christian, Rose!"

"Really! Forgive me if I don't believe you, comrade. The timing is just a little too convenient; even you have to admit that. I tell you that Christian wants to propose to Lissa and suddenly you decide that marriage now is the right thing to do?"

Feeling my temper fray at her lack of faith, I thrust my hand into my pocket and pulled out the box, holding it up to her face as I flipped it open to reveal the ring that had taken me months to find.

"Damn it, Rose! I would have married you two years ago if I thought that it was what you wanted, but I waited because I knew that it was too soon. Do you think I would be carrying this around with me if I was influenced by Abe or Christian? Do you think I ran off and brought it whilst you were in the bathroom?"

Eyes widening at the sight of the diamond and opal engagement ring, Rose closed her mouth before opening it again and spluttered. "Where the fuck did you get that ring?!"

"I've had it since March," I confessed heavily, suppressed emotion making my voice gruffer; the accent more pronounced. Lifting the ring from the bed of blue velvet cushioning, I placed the box at my side and rested my forehead against hers, breathing heavily as I felt all my carefully laid plans unravel.

"This is _not_ how I wanted to propose to you, Rosemarie Hathaway, but I suppose I should have expected it with you. Since I met you, you've never made anything easy for me."

"You drive me to distraction…you lose my hair ties, you steal my clothing; you are untidy, never on time and have an answer for _everything_ , but I would never change a single thing about you. Life without you would be structured and ordered; everything that it was before I dragged you back to the academy, but it also would be unbearably bland and I never want it to be that way again."

"I'm proposing to you because I love you, not because of anything Christian might do in the future or what Abe never could in the past. After everything that we've survived…every moment of regret and minute of pain and joy, how could you doubt that this wasn't what _I_ wanted for us?"

Sighing, I rolled my forehead against hers; thinking through what it was that she might fear and trying to find a way to convince her that it would never happen.

"If you're afraid that marriage will somehow change the nature of our relationship because I'll have higher expectations of you, I promise you that I won't. I would never let _anything_ jeopardise our life together, Rose. I will never expect anything more of you than you already give me, so will you please stop arguing with me and accept my proposal?"

Watching as a single tear slide slowly down her flushed cheek, I stroked my finger across the silvery path and caught it at the corner of her mouth, wiping it away as Rose blinked rapidly and her breath hitched.

Raising her eyes to my own, her fingers cupped my jaw as the sheen of moisture seemed to shift and alter somehow. It had begun as surprise and what I had thought was joy, but as I watched closely, it became anguish as the words she uttered next quietly destroyed me.

"No, Dimitri. I'm sorry, but I can't marry you. Not now or in a year's time. I can't marry you… _not ever_."

…to be continued.


	4. Chapter 4

The ownership of all characters related to and involving the novels of _The Vampire Academy_ and _Bloodlines_ Series remain the sole property of Richelle Mead, the Penguin Group and any affiliates.

No copyrights have been infringed on maliciously.

A/n: What…you don't like cliff-hangers?! Okay, fine. No more teasing, I promise. You've been patient enough. Enjoy the conclusion of _The Engagement._

~ The Engagement ~

Chapter Four

I had always thought that pain was relative to the situation in which you found yourself.

Having survived so much of it during the past few years, I had been certain that I knew how to deal with it. Minor injuries were the easy ones. The ones that could be moved on from without a backward glance, but there had been others that hadn't been so easily pushed aside and the scars left behind ran far deeper than could ever be seen.

The deeper of my scars had come after I had finally regained enough of my former self after my restoration to realize that I had pushed Rose into the arms of another man. I had only been able to bear that agony because I had known that it was Adrian who was there for her…that it was Adrian who would love her and keep her true to herself.

It had almost destroyed me at the time to know this, but I had made peace with it as best I could for Rose's sake, all the while knowing that I would never overcome the aching loss in my newly found heart. I had thought at the time that I could never feel any worse than in that moment.

But I had been wrong, because _this_ … _this_ was beyond imagining or measure. There was no comparative to it and there was no making peace with it.

"Dimitri...don't," Rose whispered pleadingly, clutching at my clenched jawbone with the hands that had been cupping it moments earlier as her eyes met my own forcefully. "Don't look at me like that. Don't look at me like I've just stabbed you in the back!"

Dazedly, I wondered _exactly_ how it was that I looked…betrayed, devastated?

Judging from the fact that Rose was cringing as the silence continued to grow between us and I found myself unable to reply to her tortured plea, I was guessing that it wasn't good. It was only natural I supposed that the deadening on the inside should be reflected on the outside but I felt too numb with heartache to pay it or her much more attention.

Blinking slowly, it felt as though time had been suspended as I struggled and wadded my way through the torment I was trapped in, but the words of Rose's rejection dragged me under again and again as they ran through my throbbing head and aching heart with gleeful, malicious intent.

" _No, Dimitri. I'm sorry, but I can't marry you. Not now or in a year's time. I can't marry you...not ever."_

Feeling the ripple of reaction from them ricochet around the pain induced disorientation of my body as they threatened to undo me, I frowned in bemused surprise as I felt a twinge of pain radiating outwards from the palm of my hand.

Mildly surprised that I could feel any _more_ pain at this point, I looked down at the source as Rose's hands slide along my jaw and off the blunt, clenched edge. The fingers of the hand that had been loosely holding the engagement ring that she would not accept were no longer relaxed…they were coiled with punishing tension around it.

Trying to loosen the fingers, I found that the simple command from my brain to my hand was met with stony silence. It was only as I watched the slow slide of a trickle of blood seep from beneath the clenched fingers and meander down past my wrist that I reacted.

Prying my fingers apart with the aid of my free hand, I found the discarded ring lying off center from my palm. Coated lightly in the crimson of my blood, a corner of the hammered silver filigree square was embedded in the softer flesh of my palm. It wasn't a deep wound, but there was a small amount of flesh that had been gouged out and was slowly oozing.

"Oh," Rose murmured worriedly as she looked down to the source of my preoccupation. Cradling my bleeding hand within her own, she brushed her thumb lightly over the small cut. "You've hurt yourself."

"It will heal," I found myself saying stoically; my voice throatier and thicker than normal, my accent thicker than it had been in a long time. I knew that the wound would mend quickly with the accelerated regenerative abilities that every Dhampire was born with…I only wished that my heart would be as lucky.

Lifting Rose from my lap with gentle restraint even as she protested against it, I set her down on the carpet as my unstable legs gathered beneath me and I found myself on my feet looking down at her.

Sitting on her haunches with her hands folded in her lap, Rose watched me with an intense scrutiny that was almost unbearable to be under. I could very clearly see the cost her refusal had taken, but I had no more room left in my miserable heart to bear any more regret.

Turning on my heel, I walked slowly towards the bathroom, pulling the ring from its rooted spot in my palm as I headed to the basin to wash away the blood before it had dried, dimly aware that Rose had risen after me.

"Dimitri? Where are you going? Dimitri?!"

Following after, Rose closed in on me as I flipped the switch to the bathroom and headed for the sink. Blinking against the almost harsh over-head light as it flooded my pupils and increased the throbbing already pounding against my temples; my fingers turned the ring under the steady stream of water as the tap opened beneath the fingers that trembled now for an entirely different reason now.

The hurt wasn't about to simply subside, but the rage that was now joining it was steadily beginning to overwhelm it.

Breathing harshly, I tried to focus my attention on the task ahead, but found it almost impossible to do as Rose lifted herself up to sit on the countertop beside me. She didn't touch me…and for that I was oddly grateful.

Turning the ring under the gush of cold water, I scrubbed over its sparkling surface gently with the pads of my fingertips; washing away any trace of blood whilst I waited for Rose say something, but she seemed at a loss for words…not something that happened often with her.

Instead of being happy about this, it was only increasing the anger I was finding so difficult to control at the moment. After delivering such a devastating blow, how could she simply say nothing to me? There had been a few words of watered-downed comfort, but they seemed lost in the aftermath now.

Reaching for a towel, I carefully dried the ring and placed it on the sink-top between us. Staring down at it, the bright flashes of light refracted from the brilliantly cut surface and facets of the round diamond seemed to mock me as much as Rose's refusal.

Shifting uncomfortably beside me, Rose reached out towards the ring, but she seemed to catch herself before she actually touched it. Irritated by the continued rejection, I turned away as I thrust my hand under the water to wash away the drying blood from my palm with almost violent movements.

"Careful, comrade," she joked weakly as her hands joined my own…how I managed to keep from flinching away from her touch was a mystery to even me. "You're going to rub off the skin if you keep this up."

Brushing aside my uninjured hand, Rose gently massaged over the shallow gash until the flesh began to mend and the flow of blood stopped.

Knowing that she was looking at me, I kept my gaze focused on our joined hands beneath the water and felt the anger give way for the agony again.

Pulling away from her, I dried my hands; looking for anything to do that would keep my spinning mind occupied, but as I saw Rose reach tentatively for the ring, the towel and my wet hands were forgotten.

Droplets of water ran from the tip of her fingers to the base of her palm as she lightly picked it up by the band and once again wet it. Grasping it between both thumbs and forefingers, Rose rolled the band backwards and forwards as the light caught at it and sent prisms of colour dancing over the surface of the bathroom.

Voice thickened with emotion, Rose muttered almost inaudibly. "It's beautiful, Dimitri. It really is. I told you _rock star_ and you delivered." Chuckling faintly beneath her breath, it seemed to hitch in her throat.

Originally wanting a ruby; something that would be a perfect representation of the irrepressible fire, passion and energy within Rose, my interest had changed when I had seen this ring in a family-owned antique store. The setting had been what had first caught at my attention as instead of being gold or platinum it had been silver, but it had been the combination of the diamond and the tiny blue opals that had sold me.

Viewing its uniqueness and decided lack of subtly as a perfect match for Rose's brash, bold personality, it had seemed like a good sign that upon viewing the ring it had been what I had known would be a perfect fit and required no further sizing.

"I'm so sorry that I can't accept it."

Switching off the tap, I heard the ache of remorse shadow her words and almost impossibly it seemed to increase my own tension. Grinding my teeth together as my jaw locked so tightly I could feel the hinges of muscles scream in protest, I looked up at my reflection…and almost instantly regretted it.

Under the unforgiving white light of the bathroom there was no hiding the stark planes of my face…a face that no longer looked like my own.

Unable to turn away and almost entranced by the sight, it sent a shiver of dread down my spine.

Not because of the grief I could clearly see reflected in the tormented, haggard depths of my dark brown eyes, the sunken hollows beneath my eyes or the skin pulled so tautly across my prominent cheekbones it looked like it would split apart, but at the uncanny resemblance to what I had feared the most in becoming…what I had been _before_.

I looked like a Strigoi again.

Feeling an almost overwhelming compulsion to smash the mirror into a thousand fragmented pieces, I braced myself against the marble with both hands and breathed in unsteadily, ruthlessly restraining the need and trying to find my equilibrium again.

A gentle squeezing pressure on my shoulder focused and anchored me to the present as I repeated harshly to myself that I was no longer one of the unholy, undead. Turning away from the sight of my own ravaged appearance, I found Rose watching me with an expression of deep concern.

"Why?" I voiced gruffly, pushing myself away from the sink and moving backwards a few paced. I was careful to avoid looking in the mirror again as I thrust my hands into the pockets of my slacks.

"Why am I sorry?"

Absorbing the confusion in her answer, I shook my head impatiently. "Why won't you marry me?"

Pushing past everything else I felt in this moment, I was still struggling to understand exactly what it was that she would find so objectionable.

Her views on her parent's relationship aside – both those she had harbored from before and what she knew now, Rose had to realise by this stage that our bond was nothing like those of the people who had raised or abandoned us, in both cases.

Our commitment to each other was as strong now as it had ever been before, despite what I could feel, was a shift in our relationship. We had lived together for almost two years, spent every free minute together and couldn't wait to get back to each other when we were apart, so where was this irrational fear coming from?

"You heard me when I said that my expectations of you wouldn't change once we were married, didn't you?"

Nodding, Rose continued to fiddle with the silver band of the ring as she looked away from me. "I did...and you didn't really need to tell me that, Dimitri. I already know that you would never place unrealistic expectations on me."

"And the part about my proposal having nothing to do with either Abe or Christian? You heard that too, right?"

Nodding slowly, Rose gently placed the ring down beside her before she briefly stroked over the highly polished surface of the diamond.

"Then why?!" I raged passionately as the uprising of emotion I was already battling to contain spilled over and dissolved my control. Surging forward, I stood less than half-a-dozen inches away from Rose, breathing harshly down over her.

Flinching at the undeniable fury in my voice, Rose hunched her shoulders over her torso in a move that seemed almost self-defensive before rising to meet my eyes.

"Do you really want to get into this now, Dimitri? It's been a long day for both of us and I think we've had enough arguments already."

Sliding with a quick movement from the sink-top, Rose walked out of the bathroom with wariness etched into every line of her lithe body.

Some small part of me recognized that she was right. Words said in anger were almost always regretted afterwards and even harder to take back, but the large part of me; made up mainly of wounded male pride, demanded to know why.

Scooping the ring off the counter, I pocketed it again as I grimly stalked after her. "I want an answer, Rose, not another evasion."

Sunlight, weakened by the heavily blanketing clouds and ever falling snow, filtered lazily through the parting in the curtains. Stopping at the foot of our bed, Rose sat down heavily. Reaching back, she began to unwind the tiny buttons from their moorings along her spine and deliberately avoided my gaze as she replied.

"Why? It's not going to change how I feel about this and it's only going to upset you more."

"Let me worry about my feelings, Rose. I want an answer."

Beginning to undress as it gave me something else to do with my restlessly clenching hands, I attacked the buttons of my shirt with barely restrained aggression. Stripping it from my flexing, muscular shoulders, I balled it up and chucked it into the direction of the bathroom, barely registering that if Yeva were here to see it, I would never hear the end of it.

"No, you don't," Rose warned sadly as she tried to smile but grimaced instead. "You really, really don't."

Pausing with my fingers at my belt-buckle, I could feel the violent emotions churning within me begin to drain away at the sight of her abject misery.

 _This is Rose, Dimitri_ , I reminded myself with more sense than I could recall in the last few hours. _Her motives might not make much sense at the time, but she never does anything without a good reason and she's never cruel._ _Whatever her reason, she must think that it's worth all this strife._

Sighing tiredly, I crossed the distance between us and sat down beside her. Wrapping my right arm around her waist as the dip in the bed from my weight tipped her towards me; I kissed along her hairline until I had passed her temple and was just above her ear.

"Please just tell me, Roza. I promise you that as long as it's the truth, it won't upset me any further, but I need to know why or it will drive me mad. Can you understand that? Nothing right now makes any sense to me because I know how much you love me and that to you, making me happy is just another way of showing that, so just explain it to me. We've always been able to talk to each other – even when we aren't on the same page, so this shouldn't be any different."

Leaning heavily against me, Rose's fidgeting fingers played with the pleat along the thigh of my dress pants before she relented and answered me.

"Don't you see? It's _because_ I love you that I won't marry you. I'll only make you unhappy if I do."

Feeling more confused now than I had all evening, I caught at her restless fingers until they stilled and hooked a finger beneath her chin. Lifting her eyes to meet my own, I felt my abused heart thud sickeningly at her undisguisable anguish and the need to comfort her was suddenly more powerful than the need to find my answers.

"Why would you ever think that? Marrying you would never make me unhappy. I'm not saying that we're never going to disagree as a married couple or that we'll be content all the time, but we do the same now and neither one of us wants to walk away. What is this really about, Rose? Why won't you marry me?"

Wriggling out from beneath my hold, Rose surged to her feet and whirled around to face me from a dozen paces away. Breathing heavily, she seemed to be waging a war with herself as she debated on whether or not to tell me the truth that I sought.

"Roza," I prompted gently, leaning forward with my elbows resting on my knees.

Folding her arms across her chest, the open neckline of her dress sagged across her clavicle before muttering tightly. "The reason that I won't marry you, Dimitri, is because once I do, you'll expect things from me that I don't think I'll ever be ready to give you."

Rubbing my flat of my hands over my face in disbelief, I raked my fingers through my hair roughly, but remained seated when all I really wanted to do was cross the floor and shake some sense into her.

"Like what? I've told you _repeatedly_ that I don't expect anything more of you than you already give me, so what is it that you're afraid of? What do you think I would _ever_ resent you for by denying me?"

"Children."

"Children?" I uttered bewilderedly, almost grateful that I was still sitting down.

"Yes, children." Shaking her head, Rose began to pace agitatedly along a narrow strip of carpet. "Once we're married, the next step would be to have kids. I mean, I have no idea if we would even be capable of having them; we might not be like Neil and Olive, but there's a strong possibility of it and right now, I don't want children. I don't know if I'll _ever_ want them, Dimitri, but I know how much _you_ want them."

Agitation increasing, Rose ran her fingers through her hair as she continued to pace. Lacing them at the back of her head, she looked at the carpet rather than me and when she spoke again it was a rambling, almost unfocused stringing together of words.

"It's not fair to you. I feel like I'm taking something away by denying you that. _I_ get everything I want out of the deal…namely you, but you're getting short-changed. And I know you, you'll say that it doesn't matter and that _I'm_ what you want, but can you honestly say that in five or ten years' time you're going to feel the same way? You can't, so it's just better that we don't change anything…that everything just stays the same and that you and I don't…"

Springing to my feet, I crossed to her in three quick strides, finally understanding her fear. It was irrational, but most fear was and I shouldn't have thought that Rose wouldn't be as susceptible to it as others were. I had just never thought that she would have ever entertained such ridiculous thoughts in her head.

Curling my fingers around her upper arms, I stopped her pacing and pulled her into the shelter of my body, forcing her eyes to meet mine again and holding her there with the intensity of the sun.

"Stop! Right now! You listen to me and you listen very carefully, Rosemarie Hathaway, because I'm only going to say this to you once so I expect you to never forget it. I wanted to marry you _before_ we found out about Declan's true parentage and before there was even the remotest possibility that one day we might be able to conceive a child together."

"I have never once regretted relinquishing my chances to be a parent, Rose…how could I when I got _you_ out of the bargain? Yes, children to me are important because they represent a new beginning for a future that I would help mould, but they are _not_ more important than you. You are as vital to me as the air I need to live – nothing will ever change that!"

Releasing her, I cupped her face as I felt her arms wind around my waist and her fingers feather lightly up and down the dips and high points of my spine. Breathing against her forehead, I rubbed the tips of our noses together.

"Endangering our relationship for the sake of imaginary offspring we might or might never have would be the very last thing in the world that I would ever do…how could you think that I would?"

Pulling away from me, Rose argued against my words. "Because I saw the look on your face when Adrian told us who Declan's father was. You were so happy you couldn't have hid it if you had tried to. That's when I knew that you would want them one day and I'm being selfish by not…"

Pressing my fingers to her lips, I silenced her as I kept a tight hold around her waist and cursed myself for placing the doubts in her head in the first place.

It was true that when Adrian and Sydney had confided in us the true parentage of little Declan that I had felt as though Rose and I were somehow being rewarded for all the trials and tribulations we had been through, but never for a second would I have thought that she would have been worrying over it.

"We're partners, remember? Equals." I reminded her tenderly, feeling far lighter than I had in ages. The truth of her refusal was no less tricky to get around then when I had come up with a hundred different scenarios in my head but now that I knew it had nothing more to do with than uncertainties; I knew we could overcome it.

"Every decision we make, we make together, all right? No more secrets, or doubts, or worrying. We already have enough on our collective plates to be concerned about. Things like this shouldn't even exist between us, Roza. Promise me that in the future, they won't."

Nodding, she smiled ruefully. "Promise. I'm sorry that I was so stupid about everything. I ruined your proposal."

Tightening my hold on her, I crushed her lightly against my chest, kissing the top of her head. "Yes. You did, but now that I know why, you're forgiven."

Muffling her laughter against my chest as she heard the complete lack of censure in my voice; feeling magnanimous enough now that the truth had been revealed to brush it aside, Rose's frolicking fingers skimmed up along my spine once more before they travelled along my ribs. Flattening, they slide up my pectoral muscles and collar bone before her fingers laced together behind my neck.

Finding the buttons that remained fastened at her spine, I slide them slowly from their moorings, pulling away the bodice and peeling it to her waist as my bare chest met the dark red bustier beneath it.

Trailing my fingers teasingly across her delicate clavicle as Rose shivered and tangled her fingers in my hair, her eyes narrowed with drowsy desire, but not enough it seemed for her to still ask.

"So…if I accept your proposal, you're not going to pressure me into having kids?"

"No. If and when we're both in agreement over the matter of our hypothetical children, then and only then, will we discuss the possibility. Why?" I asked with deliberate provocation as my fingers continued their search downwards. "Are you thinking of accepting now?"

"Maybe…is the offer still on the table?"

Tilting my head backwards, I pursed my lips as I contemplated it. "No, I don't think it is."

"Really?" Rose asked mockingly. "Who else is going to put up with you, comrade? You're compulsively neat, throw tantrums when I lose things, insist on wearing that damn duster in hundred degree weather, won't eat junk food, won't tolerate me swearing in _any_ language and take up most of the space on our book shelf with your cowboy novels."

Sliding my hands down to the back of her upper thighs, I picked her up and walked her to the bed, flopping down on it with her beneath me. Bouncing lightly, Rose's legs curled upwards to wrap around my waist as I rested most of my weight to the side.

"I'll have you know, Guardian Hathaway, that I am a very eligible catch despite all of what you consider to be my flaws."

"I don't think they're your flaws, Dimitri. They're some of my favorite things about you and just make up the small bits of the whole that I love." Stroking her index finger down the length of my nose, she tweaked it before tapping my upper lip.

"Now that we've got this all sorted out…can I have my ring?"

"Why?"

Frowning, Rose barked. "What do you mean _why_? Because it's mine."

"That's not a good enough reason."

"Don't you want to see if it fits?"

"I already know that it will fit, Roza."

"How can you know that?"

"I just do."

"Cocky," she muttered, tightening her arms as she snuggled deeper into my embrace. "Will you give it to me if I ask you to propose again?"

"That depends." I stalled, enjoying the return of our usual banter.

"On what?"

"On if you're going to reject me again. I can only handle so much for one day."

"I didn't reject you. I just didn't want to disappoint you. Besides Lissa, you're the only other person on this planet whose opinion I give a damn about."

"So that's why I've just gone through the torture of the damned? God, Rose."

Kissing her forehead, I inhaled deeply as her exotic scent wrapped around my senses; feeling the last of the misery that had gripped me fade away completely. Sliding my hand into my pocket as I angled my hips, I found the ring and held it up to Rose.

"This ring?"

"No, the _other_ diamond engagement ring you've got in your pocket…yes, _that_ ring."

Propping myself up on an elbow, I found her left hand and singled out her third finger, sliding the ring onto it as I whispered against her lips.

"Will you, Rosemarie Hathaway, _finally_ agree to be my wife?"

"Well…." She stalled, flicking her fingers against the downward pathway of the ring in a half-hearted attempt to dislodge it.

"Rose, I swear by everything we hold sacred if you do this to me again…"

Laughing up at me, she cradled my face between her warm palms before looking at me with enough love to carry both of us for a lifetime. "Yes, Dimitri Belikov. I will be your wife. If you think that you can handle me as your _ball and chain_ , then who am I to argue and if you're willing to accept me as I am when you know I'm full of flaws then I'm definitely not going to argue with you, but I'm going to take you up on your word. This is going to be a _very_ long engagement."

"As long as you like, _moye serdtse_ …as long as you like." I muttered against her lips in promise. I wasn't about to question or argue with her over this. I would wear her down later…much, much later.

Devouring her lips with a hunger I couldn't control or dilute, I broke away to grasp the edges of her dress hugging her hips, pulling it off her as I levered myself upwards. Tossing it to the closest chair, my fingers went to my buckle again.

Coiling her legs seductively towards her, Rose smiled with pure feminine satisfaction as she held her hand up and admired her ring, waggling her fingers until the stones caught at the dull winter light.

"You know that he's going to say that it's because of him that this has happened, right?"

"Who?" I asked distractedly, wrestling with the legs of my pants as I pulled them and my boxers off.

"Abe, of course. We can argue until the cows come home, but he's going to tell everyone that we got engaged because he was the one that pushed the issue."

Crawling over her again, I kissed my way from the valley of her breasts to her throat then over to the left of her collarbone. Sliding my hands beneath her torso, my fingers found the hooks at the back of the bustier and began to pull them apart.

"He's not going to be any worse than Yeva." I assured her, parting the lingerie until I found a hook I had missed. Muttering beneath my breath, I searched for it again.

"Oh, damn!" Rose griped as she wiggled beneath me to give my searching fingers more room. "I forgot about Yeva. Jesus, they can't _ever_ be under the same roof together. They'll be completely intolerable. How _long_ as she been saying that we're going to get married?"

Chuckling at the thought of my all-knowing grandmother and my autocratic soon-to-be-father-in-law being in the same room together, I found the last hook and whipped the bustier off Rose with a flourish, groaning at the sight of her bared breasts.

"You know you're going to have to thank him one day, don't you?"

Nosing between her breasts, the flat of my tongue ran along the valley from right to left as I tasted the flesh I could feel flushing and swelling with arousal already.

"I know," I agreed, rising over her on straightened arms as I pressed my lips to hers and silenced her, not wanting to think about the look of smug, self-satisfaction on Ibrahim Mazur face when I was about to make love to his daughter… _my fiancée_. "But that day isn't today, Roza. Remind me on our fifth anniversary…"

The End…

Concluding a/n: Thank you everyone for the really great reviews! I hope you enjoyed reading about poor Dimitri's uphill battle with Rose.

I've finally worked out all the kinks in _By the Baring of my Soul_ (Shadow Kiss from DPOV) so I should be able to post the first chapter by next weekend or at the latest, the weekend after.


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